Golden Gate

View looking west, from the Garden of Gethsemane, at the double-arched “Golden Gate.”  This gate is situated on the eastern wall of Jerusalem which in this area is the eastern wall of the Temple Mount (Haram esh-Sharif).

The small white structures in front of the gate are tombs that are part of a Muslim cemetery that runs the length of the eastern wall of the Old City.

The present Golden Gate was probably built during the rule of the Moslem Caliph Abd al-Malik – an Umayyad ruler who ruled from Damascus from A.D. 685 to 705.

It may have been blocked in the 8th century, but during the Crusader rule in Jerusalem (12th century) it was opened on Palm Sunday (spring) and during the festival of the “Exaltation of the Cross” (September).  It was closed after the Crusader era and has remained closed ever since.